Primary Source Exemplar: The Moon
Reviewed and Revised by Odell Education
Unit Abstract
Through a study of the moon, students will be guided through an inquiry process using primary sources to learn how we shape our understanding of the past (history). They will also learn how new discoveries and observations change our perceptions over time, as each succeeding generation creates knowledge and adds new technology. Students will then pose their own questions to wonder how future discoveries or new technology might change our understanding of the world and our universe.
Through the examination of different primary sources, utilizing a process of inquiry, students will examine a variety of primary sources (documents, photos, audio recordings etc.) to discover how information comes from many sources and each source adds to the others to create a more complete picture of an event or time in history.
Source List
Anchor Source
Notes About Use in this Unit: This poem can be used with ELA students to “set the stage” for this unit study of the moon.
Supporting Sources
Notes About Use: Teachers need to download Google Earth to a computer. From this link there are several options of items to view including moon landings. Once downloaded, click on the little planet in the toolbar. Choose moon. On the left navigation bar, choose moon landings. Each landing has many images to choose from
Notes About Use in this Unit: Interesting background for teachers in preparation of the claim to the invention of the telescope by Giovanbattista della Porta, claiming the invention prior to Galileo.
Notes About Use in this Unit: This paragraph should be read aloud to students. Teacher can discuss specific words and their meanings.
"President Obama said that 'Neil was among the greatest of American heroes - not just of his time, but of all time.”When he and his fellow crew members lifted off aboard Apollo 11 in 1969, they carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation. They set out to show the world that the American spirit can see beyond what seems unimaginable - that with enough drive and ingenuity, anything is possible. And when Neil stepped foot on the surface of the moon for the first time, he delivered a moment of human achievement that will never be forgotten.' "
Background Texts
Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin, Charlesbridge, 2009
Finding the Moon, Delta Science Readers, 2003
Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle, Scholastic, 1986
Phases of the Moon by Gillia M. Olson, Capstone Press, 2007
So That’s How the Moon Changes Shape! by Allan Fowler, Children’s Press, 1991
The Moon Book, Gail Gibbons, Holiday House, 1997
What the Moon is Like, Franklin Branley, Harper Collins, 1963
Experiments with the Sun and the Moon, Salvatore Tocci, Children’s Press, 2003
Seven Wonders of Space Technology
[Alfred B. Bortz] 978-0-761-35453-6 - From Stonehenge to the Mars rovers, Bortz charts a select number of technological advances that have played central roles in our understanding of the solar system and the universe beyond. Not only does he present a clear picture of how each "wonder" was constructed and used for new discoveries, he also instills a sense of wonder in readers- particularly in final chapters about future spacecraft and voyages to the stars. Grades 4-6
Moustrounaut Based on a (partially) true story
[Mark Kelly] 978-1-4424-5832-1 - Trained with human astronauts, a small mouse named Meteor joins a space shuttle crew and rescues the mission by going where no mouse (or man) has gone before. A soaring adventure, written by a retired astronaut and illustrated in crisp, accurate detail. (This looks like a cool picture book.) Grades K-2
Eight Days Gone
[Linda McReynolds] Simple rhymes and equally simple cartoon illustrations capture the drama of Apollo 11's lunar mission, from liftoff to Moon walk to victory parade. For audiences who may regard that flight as ancient history, the closing author's note and photo will serve nicely as springboards to a greater understanding of a pivotal event in our exploration of space. Grades K-2
Zoom, Rocket, Zoom!
[Margaret Mayo] 978-0-802-72791-6 - This high-energy blend of kinetic rhyme and cut-paper collage pictures will put stars in the eyes of new and pre-readers as it introduces spacecraft from rockets and shuttles to Moon buggies. An irresistible invitation to visit the International Space Station, walk and ride on the Moon, then travel far, far beyond.
Standards Alignment
ELA/Literacy Grade Level Standards
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.1.1c Ask questions to clear up any confusion about the topics and texts under discussion.
How the unit/lessons target this standard for teaching and assessment: There are many opportunities for students to develop questions to obtain information and clarity through discussion, and the process of analyzing the many documents and artifacts.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.5 With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.
How the unit/lessons target this standard for teaching and assessment: The primary source analysis process encourages questioning, reflection, and group discussion.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.6 With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.
How the unit/lessons target this standard for teaching and assessment: Creating animotos, voicethreads timelines and more, encourages students to utilize digital tools within a collaborative environment.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.8 With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question
How the unit/lessons target this standard for teaching and assessment: Utilizing the primary source analysis process, students develop critical thinking skills. Through the use of journals, the creation of timelines, and other activities, students recall information and transfer new skills and content knowledge.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.1.2 Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
How the unit/lessons target this standard for teaching and assessment: Creating a poster, an animoto and a timeline utilizes critical ELA skills to create a viable product with a beginning, middle and end.
CCSS Mathematics Standards
CCSS.Math.Content.1.G.A.1. Distinguish between defining attributes (e.g., triangles are closed and three-sided) versus non-defining attributes (e.g., color, orientation, overall size); build and draw shapes to possess defining attributes.
CCSS.Math.Content.1.G.A.2. Compose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, trapezoids, triangles, half-circles, and quarter-circles) or three-dimensional shapes (cubes, right rectangular prisms, right circular cones, and right circular cylinders) to create a composite shape, and compose new shapes from the composite shape.
CCSS.Math.Content.1.G.A.3 Partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, fourths, and quarters, and use the phrases half of, fourth of, and quarter of. Describe the whole as two of, or four of the shares. Understand for these examples that decomposing into more equal shares creates smaller shares.
College, Career and Civic Life C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards
Dimension 1: Developing Questions and Planning Inquiries
D1.3.K-2. Identify facts and concepts associated with a supporting question.
How the unit/lessons target this standard for teaching and assessment: Each primary source is introduced utilizing a primary source analysis process that requires observation, reflection and question development. The activities that follow that introduction answer the questions asked.
Dimension 2, Historical Sources and Evidence
D2.His.10.K-2. Explain how historical sources can be used to study the past.
How the unit/lessons target this standard for teaching and assessment: Students can define change through time through the articulated development of these lessons.
D2.His.12.K-2. Generate questions about a particular historical source as it relates to a particular historical event or development.
How the unit/lessons target this standard for teaching and assessment: Each primary source is introduced utilizing a primary source analysis process that requires observation, reflection and question development. The activities that follow that introduction answer the questions asked.
Next Generation of Science Standards (NGSS)
K-PS2-1: Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object
Cross Cutting Concept: Cause and Effect: Simple tests can be designed to gather evidence to support or refute student ideas about causes
How the unit/lessons target this standard for teaching and assessment: Each lesson / activity requires students to critically gather evidence utilizing their senses, through a process that requires observation, reflection, and question development.
1-ESS1-1. Use observations of the sun, moon, and stars to describe patterns that can be predicted
How the unit/lessons target this standard for teaching and assessment: Using daily observation, note-taking, and journaling, students can describe patterns of the moon and sun.
Developing Student Literacy
Guidelines: Instructional design will build upon CCSS Key Shifts and demonstrate and support student close reading of texts, deriving textbased evidence through questioning, building arguments from the texts, application of the text to historical or contemporary real world situations, and fluency with vocabulary for writing and speaking about new understandings
Rationale
Students build word lists from the lessons that they then shape into sentences that form their observations and opinions of the topic. They then align those ideas with visuals to create a complete picture of their learning.
CCSS Areas of Focus
Reading Text Closely: Makes reading text(s) closely, examining textual evidence, and discerning deep meaning a central focus of instruction.
Explanation: The facilitated close reading allows students to experience language in a variety of ways to enhance understanding. Each text is introduced using guided questioning, direct reading of short passages, and class discussion.
Text Based Evidence: Facilitates rich and rigorous evidence based discussions and writing about common texts through a sequence of specific, thought provoking, and text dependent questions (including, when applicable, questions about illustrations, charts, diagrams, audio/video, and media).
Explanation: Using primary source documents, students will, through the ‘unpacking’ process, ponder the answers to a myriad of questions about those documents.They will reflect on what they see in relation to what they already know; and then question what it is they need to know more about.
Writing from Sources: Routinely expects that students draw evidence from texts to produce clear and coherent writing that informs, explains, or makes an argument in various written forms (e.g., notes, summaries, short responses, or formal essays).
Explanation: Daily writing in a journal allows students to reflect on their class discussion, the source documents, their daily activities and draw inferences about change through time.
Academic Vocabulary: Focuses on building students’ academic vocabulary in context throughout instruction.
Explanation: Academic vocabulary is built into the lessons as a part of world building (via word walls, etc) and is primarily “taught” through use and practice.
Building Disciplinary Knowledge: Provides opportunities for students to build knowledge about a topic or subject through analysis of a coherent selection of strategically sequenced, discipline-specific texts.
Explanation: Each lesson incorporates a series of word building strategies, idea building through whole-class and small group discussion, direct reading and handling of texts; and reflection that shows their capacities of content knowledge as well as the skills they’ve obtained.
Direct Learning Through Questions
Essential Questions
How do we know what happened in the past?
How do our perceptions change over time?
How might discoveries or new technology change our understanding of the world and our universe?
Supporting Questions
What do we know about the moon?
How did we learn about it?
How do observations help us understand the world (universe)?
How do observations of patterns in the natural world help us understand the world (universe)?
What discoveries and/or technology has helped us understand more about the moon?
When you look at the moon, how does the shape seem to change over time?
Text Based Questions
Each lesson has a set of text-based questions designed to:
Ignite engagement.
Develop observational skills.
Model questioning.
Focus attention to key ideas, content facts, and ‘big picture’ context.
Create more questions for students to follow up on.
Integrate Learning Across Disciplines
Integrated Learning Sequence
a. "Big ideas” are explored first, to pique interest through facilitated questioning.
b. Exploration of text, artifacts, and images begin the process of understanding content / context.
c. Research using hands-on activities allow for student interaction with the content.
d. Reflection via a daily journal allows students to show their learning; teacher to check for understanding and need for review or any change in lessons.
Subject Areas of Focus, and/or Essential Ideas
ELA focus on reading for understanding, word building
Math focus on shapes and shares
Social Science focus on essential ideas of historical change, and the importance of context
Science focus on topic of space, and on understanding the scientific topic of ‘change’
Align Assessment with Instruction
Culminating/Summative Assessment Task
Students prepare a poster of their idea for the next steps in space travel / living.
Formative Assessment Strategies
Each activity has a journal-writing component that acts as formative assessment. Teacher can check-in with each student.
Consider Background Knowledge and Prerequisite Skills
Guidelines: What previous learning might be needed for students to succeed in the unit? How might students’ background and skills be pre-assessed to determine their readiness for learning?
Prerequisite Learning
Essential Understandings:
Technology helps us understand our world and the universe
As technology improves, our observations become more accurate
History relates to events that have already happened.
History teaches us about the lives of people long ago.
Primary sources help us understand what happened in the past.
History helps us understand the perspectives of people from the past and why their perspectives may have changed over time.
Essential Skills:
Use information from print and non-print sources.
Separate non-fiction from fiction as well as opinion from fact.
Identify information gained from primary sources.
Use a timeline to sequence events from the past.
Learn how technology assists our observations (telescope)
Terms to know:
Long ago, past, present
Real vs make-believe
History: Events that have already happened
Science terms:
Telescope
Rocket
Technology
Pre-Assessment of Readiness for Learning
Day 1
a. Take students outside with a piece of paper and a pencil at 9 AM. Have them stand in a line facing the school door [the one they just came out of]. On their piece of paper have them draw a simple map with a square representing the school. Have them label that square “school." Then have them add 2-3 other geographical markers [swing set, tree, benches, etc].
b. Next, ask them to point to the sun. Ask: Where is the sun in relation to you, when you look are facing the door of our school? Discuss that the sun is to the [left, right, straight up].
c. On their piece of paper have them draw a small circle. Label it 9 AM.
d. Repeat this process at 12:30 and 2:30, adding in the circles with different time labels. Have students turn in their papers. Teacher, check for understanding.
Day 2
a. Hand back students' papers. Discuss the following:
You have made a map - What do you see on the map?
You charted the movement of the sun – how do we know the sun moved? Did it? Did we? Discuss how things changed in the sky during the day. What else changes during the day? [we eat breakfast at morning, lunch at mid day and dinner in evening, etc].
What questions do we have about the sun? Are there other objects in the sky we might wonder about? What would those be? [encourage them to bring up “moon”]. Ask: What do we know about these objects in the sky? [stars shine, the sun is hot, the cow jumps over the moon, there is a man in the moon]. Ask, has anyone ever visited these objects? [engage them in wondering about visiting stars, the sun [too hot], planets [spacecraft have visited planets]; and the moon – has anyone been to the moon?
b. List their questions on a piece of butcher paper.
Tell them: Over the next few weeks we are going to be explorers to try to understand why these things change. We are going to begin to OBSERVE our surroundings to see what changes. Let’s start with the moon. Tonight for homework I want you to write down 3 questions you have about the moon.
c. Collect their questions the next day and keep them for lesson 2.
They are now pre-assessed for learning and ready to go.
Provide Support While Building Toward Independence
Strategies for Supporting All Students and Building Independence
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Additional Suggestions for Support/Extension
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English language learners:
Students with disabilities:
Below grade level readers:
Above grade-level readers:
Lesson Sequence
Lesson #1: Integrated Social Studies, ELA, and Science Lesson
Lesson #2: Integrated Social Studies and ELA Lesson
Lesson #3: Integrated Science and ELA Lesson
Lesson #4: Mathematics
Lesson #5: Mathematics
Final Activity: Summative Performance Task